Lessons

Lesson Info

Lead Vocal Tracking

I'm good to go. Okay cool. Alright, do you want to just start from the beginning? Yeah, let's do it. Alright. (hard rock music) ♫ I would be wise ♫ To lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire, concealing the doors You sounded pretty good, man. How are you feelin'? Gettin' there. Cool. Why don't you do it a couple more times? Yup, sounds good. (hard rock music) ♫ I would be wise ♫ To lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire, concealing the doors Gimme a double on that one real quick. Cool. I just wanna hear what it sounds like. (hard rock music) ♫ I would be wise ♫ To lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire, concealing the doors Very, very close together. I'm gonna turn it down just to hear what the real volumes would be like. Okay. Okay? ♫ I would be wise ♫ To lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire, concealing the doors Okay cool, yeah they sound great together. Sounds good to me. Tell me if you're c...

ool with this; I would like to kinda proceed like this 'cause you're sounding good. Okay. Try to get through the verse, then go back and see what we would like to correct about it. So just do leads and doubles, just get some solid takes and then we'll fix whatever problems there are. Yeah that sounds good. I'm right with you on the same page. As opposed to in the recording where I'm being super anal and meticulous about it, I'm not gonna be as just for the sake of time. But let's just get the best takes and just plow forward, you know what I mean? If there's like subtle little things, maybe you can just come back in the end and tweak some stuff. Okay cool. Alright, you wanna go for the next line then? Yes. Okay, here it goes. Yes. (hard rock music) ♫ I would be wise ♫ To lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own Do you mind if I turn the harmonies down or are they good for you the way they are? It's fine for me, but you can turn them down. Okay cool, well they're distracting me a little. That's totally fine. I'll start you a little closer, alright? Yeah that's cool. ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own this time Let's break that in half, okay? Okay. Let's just try to get up to anxious to be and we'll deal with the other part later. Alright, you ready? Yes. ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be Feel like you're the slightest bit flat. Yeah, try it again. See, with a singer like him, I will actually make him redo it if he's just a little flat 'cause he's good enough to get it on. That right there for most singers is better than they'll ever do-- ♫ We're free And we'll be good to proceed. But higher standards of this guy 'cause he's really awesome. ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be You started great. We're so damn anxious to be is where it got off. Yeah, I took a breath there, I shouldn't have. Okay, do it again? ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be I like how you ended it. Yeah, I think that was alright. It had a nice attitude towards the end. Yeah, the beginning was a little-- Yeah, the only thing I didn't like was the high note. It didn't have quite enough-- You mean the falsetto stuff? Yeah. Okay. Try again. Okay. But keep that last half. I am keepin' it. Alright, cool. See that's one thing I'll do, once we have something that we kinda like, I'll mute it and I'll just put on another track. ♫ We know In case he can never get back to it or whatever or I need to build off of it, but usually he'll end up doing way better. ♫ To go Here we go. ♫ Be wise to lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be I think that was more in-pitch, but less on the 'tude. In the beginning you mean? Yeah, but the pitch was better. Try again. Congrats. ♫ Be wise to lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be I wanna hear that one doubled. This is kinda like, with guitar tone, once I hear what I'm looking for I kinda know it and then I move onto the double. I am assuming always that vocals will be tuned. In his case, they'll be only slightly tuned. But if I hear what I'm looking for in the delivery and the pitch is maybe only a tiny bit off, I will let it go. Most important thing for me is the delivery. I'm gonna make a track right here for the muted vocals, so we can always just put them down here. Here it goes. Okay. ♫ Of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be I like how it started. Yeah, me too. I wanna keep how it started and just sing along, but I'm gonna punch you in a little further in. You got it. ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be Just gotta match the attitude on so damn anxious to be. The rest is sic. Okie dokie. ♫ Concealing the doors ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be There you go. So right now, the doubles and the main line are at the same volume and you hear them slightly chorusing, that's okay because no two vocal takes will ever be exactly the same pitch-wise. This is not a synth, it's a human voice. So when you hear them at the same volume, they will be chorusing slightly. That's absolutely normal as long as you're not hearing half-steps off of each other. It's fine as long as it's relatively close. The double is gonna be much lower in volume anyways and these will be slightly tuned. But when you hear it like I played it earlier, much lower in volume, you don't really notice the chorusing at all. Just letting you guys know what that's all about. ♫ Free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own this time That was better. Cool. ♫ Our own this time I think I still like the turnaround from the other one. Bro, okay well then let's do it again. I think so, let's do it. You think so? Maybe it will work as a double. Alright, maybe. You wanna hear them together? Yeah. Okay. ♫ To be ♫ Our own this time Not bad. Let me see if this computer has a VocALign on it. I'm kinda doubting it does, but lemme just see. VocALign is the shit. When we did the album, I was VocALigning everything as we went. Yes, we were. If that's possible, I'll do it right now as well so lemme see. We're in luck. Nice. Lemme go ahead and VocALign what we've done 'til now. Okay. Cool. VocALign, since this is Pro Tools 10, we're using VocALign. There's a newer version of this wonderful, wonderful program called Revoice Pro and it's made for newer versions of Pro Tools. This will get real funky in newer versions of Pro Tools. What it does is exactly what it sounds like it does, it aligns vocals. When you get a lead in a double, I immediately go to guide, capture it, then dub, then select the dub track. Capture it and then it's aligned. (hard rock music) ♫ I would be wise ♫ To lay in ♫ Parents of planets sublime ♫ Lost in the fire ♫ Concealing the doors So you can already hear that even if the pitches aren't tuned yet and they're still chorusing, it's already 100% tighter. It works, lemme just do the rest. So again I'm selecting the guide track, hitting capture, then I'm selecting the track that I want to align to it, hitting dub then capture then spot and boom. ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be Boom. We'll do the same thing here. Just so you know, this isn't a 100% thing; sometimes it screws up and you gotta do some things manually but say 99% of the time you're good with this, even better with Revoice. Those of you with newer versions of Pro Tools should be using Revoice. ♫ Our own There you go, perfect example. It just screwed up because it's reading these breaths so I'm going to get rid of the breath on the double and I'm not going to grab the breath on the original in the guide track. I'll capture. ♫ Our own it doesn't like this one for some reason. This is kinda what I was just talking about. I'm gonna try one more thing and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I'm gonna try aligning the top one to the bottom one. Got capture, dub, capture, now. ♫ Our own Alright, well there you go. There's a perfect example of when it does not work. In this case I would just do manual edits which are a little bit slower and I'm not gonna take up his warmed-up state away from manual edits, I'll do those later. VocALign's so quick that I'll just do it on the spot. (Chris warming up) Okay. What's up? Are you good to go? Yeah. Okay, so what's next? There's a line that comes in right after that. Killer. ♫ Time ♫ Save this confirmation until the revelry I like that. That was good. I just wanna see if you can give it a little more character into revelry but the rest was great. Okay, fair enough. So if you just wanna punch in on that. Cool. ♫ Time ♫ Save this confirmation until the revelry There you go. Cool. Alright, double that. Quell, alright. ♫ Time (Chris sighing) ♫ Save this confirmation until the revelry It ended great, it just started weird. So let's just get the beginning. One more time. I'm saving that ending though. You want one more times or you want to do the whole thing? Yeah, I'll do the whole thing one more time. Alright, then I'm saving that take anyways. Go for it. ♫ Time ♫ Save ♫ Save this confirmation until the revelry That was pretty nice. Excellent. Let's check that one out. Cool. I'm gonna VocALign it first though. VocALign is just being crazy man, so I may just have to do this later. It was working fine before but now it's-- That's fine. Yeah, it's starting to just act like-- Fuck it, let's just keep workin'. Yeah it was fine, that's a good double. Okay. Revoice Pro doesn't do this. You want me to do one more just in case? No, we've got three really good ones. Alrighty then. Alright, cool. Yeah, Revoice Pro doesn't do this kind of weird stuff, that's the newest one; VocALign is a very old program. So the newer your DW is, the more funky it will behave. Next part's just screaming. Okay, the next part's just screaming? Yeah, the next part's just screaming. I think the next singing part is a repeat of the chorus. Okay. (hard rock music) ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be Yeah, that had the 'tude. I just wanna get the first half. Yeah, I can do that again. The falsetto. I wanna keep that ending. So really we're just aiming for the falsetto part. Cool. Alright, ready? Yeah. (hard rock music) ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be Okay, double that. Cool. (hard rock music) ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be Lemme try aligning that. Alright. Uh oh. ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be And that time it worked. Cool. I think what I need to do is close it out every time. Okay. Alright, let's keep goin'. Alright. I'm sure everyone watching can hear the difference between aligned and not aligned. ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own this time See, that was way sexier. ♫ Anxious to be ♫ Our own this ti Even though you paused, it was pretty cool. It's okay. Yeah I like it, it was also different than the first time around at its own thing. Yeah, word. Can we double that? Yes, we can. Alright, just remember that you-- Pause. That you pause. Yes. ♫ We know we're free to go ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own this time Great. Lemme align that real quick. ♫ Our own this time Yup, that worked. I think I figured out how to get it to stop acting like a dick, so cool. What's next? Same chorus but just slightly varied lyrics. Cool, extend it right there? Yeah. Alright, cool. You ready? Yes. ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own this time ♫ Oh now we know ♫ You're free to go ♫ You're so damn anxious to be ♫ Your own this time It ended great. Yeah. The beginning was weird. Do it again. Alright. ♫ We're so damn anxious to be ♫ Our own this time ♫ Oh now we know ♫ You're free to go ♫ You're so One of them is outta tune, I think it's on the main line. Is it? Lemme listen to the main line or let's listen to the main line because we liked it, so let's just check it out. ♫ Oh now we know you're free to go ♫ You're so damn anxious to be Is that wrong? Just might be a little out, or just punch in for that. Sure. Okay. Do you wanna punch in on the main line? Yeah, punch in for the main line just before the falsetto thing. Sure lemme make sure that I'm 100% of where it's at. ♫ Oh now we know you're free to go Free to go? Yeah. So I'll sing you're anyway just so it goes into it nicely. Cool. A lot of the time when there's pitch problems, (piano chiming) ♫ Free to go we I'm the one who has to play the piano for the vocalist, but he brings his own; makes my life easier. ♫ We're free to go (piano chiming) ♫ We're (piano chiming) ♫ We're free to go ♫ We're free to go Alright let's give it a shot. ♫ This time ♫ Oh now we know you're free to go ♫ You're so damn anxious to That's way better. Lemme smooth that punch. ♫ You're free to go ♫ You're so damn anxious to Okay, it sounds like you did it in a one-go so let's start out with that. Okay. ♫ Our own this time ♫ Oh now we know you're free to go ♫ You're so damn anxious to be ♫ Your own this time Nice double. Thank you. Lemme align that. Alrighty. One thing also to pay attention to, even if it's not tuned when it's aligned, it sounds way, way better. You can tell that it's gonna work, or actually if it's not gonna work, you can also tell a lot easier because at least it's in time. ♫ Ooooo ooo ooo Cool. So now it's just that little affected line in the background? Yeah, yup. Alright, cool. I know the one. Alrighty. So I'm gonna mute it from that backing track. I don't want to be thrown off. That's my favorite vocal in the song. Alright. Yeah, so congratulations. Thank you. On getting that part, you ready? Yeah. ♫ Time ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo Is it alright that you could be a little smoother with it and not... Like can it be done on one continuous breath? Yeah. Okay. ♫ Your own this time ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo Bleh. (chuckles) Try to become more of a (mumbles). Alright, you ready? Yeah. ♫ Your own this time ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo Alright, I'm gonna keep that one, but let's do another one. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo (piano chiming) Why do you have to do it perfectly when I'm not recording? Yeah, right? That's the story of my life. Well, change the story now that I'm about to track you. Cool. ♫ Time ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo That ending was sweet. Lemme see if the earlier beginning I liked, if that ending will work together. Mmkay. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo Awesome, you wanna keep goin'? Yeah. Alright. Some things I like to do in the moment so that I don't forget for later or whatever, that voice that we just tracked is supposed to be very affected. So I'm just gonna move it to a separate track and call it SM7B Affect. I'm not gonna worry about making it the final effects now, but I will at the very least make it kinda lo-fi so that I'll remember to come back to that. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo And I'll put some sort of a time-based effect 'cause mainly to remind myself. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo There we go. Okay, you ready to keep goin'? Mm-hmm. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Who would deny that I can see him next to me One more time. That was pretty good. It was only here next to me that it was off and it had good attitude too. Cool, we'll hold onto it though. Yeah. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Who could deny Nope sorry, I was a little out. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Who could deny that I can see him next to me Almost. What didn't you like about that? It just felt like I was a little flat on that time. ♫ Him Lemme listen to it. But hold onto it. Alright. Maybe gimme a double. I'll give you a double, how about that? Okay. ♫ Ooooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Ooo ♫ Who could deny that I can see him next to me ♫ Such a creation that achieves ♫ A vile abnormality Run out of breath. Yeah, I gave you the double. I don't know what you didn't like about the original but that sounded sic together. Okay. So why don't we keep goin' onto that next part? Alright. Lemme just align this real quick and we'll do it. ♫ Who could deny that I can see him next to me ♫ Such a creation that achieves ♫ A vile abnormality I think we need to cut that in half. No, I don't want to. What? I don't want to. Really? Yeah, I'll do it. You need a little more power behind the low part. Alright, but I'll try it again then if not, I'll cut it in half. Alright. ♫ Who could deny that I can see him next to me ♫ Such a creation that achieves ♫ A vile abnormality Cool, so I see what you did there; that's the right idea. Do it again though, but that's the right idea. ♫ Who could deny that I can see him next to me ♫ Such a creation that achieves ♫ A vile abnormality Yo, the first half of it was like spot-on perfect. Again. Like do you wanna punch in half way through or somethin'? I know what you said earlier, but like first half was really good. Alright, do it. ♫ That I can see him next to me ♫ Such a creation achieves ♫ A vile abnormality That was actually way better. Alright. Wanna double? Sure. ♫ Who could deny that I can see him next to me ♫ Such a creation that achieves ♫ A vile abnormality It sounds a lot better with a double. Cool. So if a vocalist tells me that something is getting close to their range of possibilities, I'm gonna respect that. 'Cause the last thing I want is for them to blow out their voice or hurt themselves 'cause then the session ends and possibly the album ends too, for a while. 'Cause it takes a very long time for vocalists to recover sometimes. ♫ Vile abnormality ♫ Holding on time unbound by me ♫ Taken by the mystery ♫ Let it be, let it be A lot of that was really sic. Hold onto it and I'll do it again? Sure, one sec. That might be a good double. Yeah quite possibly, I'm holding onto it. Holding on. ♫ That achieves a vile abnormality ♫ Holding on time unbound by me ♫ Taken by the mystery ♫ Let it be, let it be Part of that was great. Let's get the beginning and let's get the end, but the middle was pretty sic. Cool. ♫ That achieves a vile abnormality ♫ Holding on time unbound by me That was good. ♫ Time unbound by me ♫ Taken by the mystery ♫ Let it be, let it be Nice, alright so what's next? There's a part that pretty much comes in right after that. Okay. ♫ Let it be, let it be ♫ Judging instead by the man inside ♫ Truth can make its way to light ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me I'm gonna keep that, but I know you can do it better. Okay. But if you wanna know what I think, maybe possibly, the middle was the strongest. It was the beginning and the end where it was kind of all-- True enough. ♫ Let it be, let it be ♫ Judging instead by the man inside ♫ Truth can make its way to light ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me You sound good. I kinda wonder what it would sound like if you came in right at stupid and blind for full power. Okay. Like I'll keep that one too, though. So I'm gonna punch you in on that. I'm up for it. ♫ Judging instead by the man inside ♫ Truth can make its way to light ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me Let's get just one of me. Really? Yeah, I'll keep that one too, but I just wanna hear what it would sound like if you just focused on that. Okay, I gotta do the beginning again too. Okay. ♫ By the mystery ♫ Let it be, let it be ♫ Judging instead by the man Ugh, so close. Yeah, okay. Did you put that with another one? Yeah. Sounded okay? Yeah, I think so. I'm just finding the right spot to have them crossover. Alright, let's just get the one of me. Okay. ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me See, that was way better. (Chris mumbling) You wanna double this? Yeah. Cool, okay ready? Yes, sir. ♫ Let it be, let it be ♫ Judging instead by the man inside ♫ Truth can make its way to light ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me (Chris mouth farting) Yeah, the ending fell off-- Yeah, totally. A lot of it was really good. So just get the end? Yeah, let's get the end. Just felt that go. Alright, definitely to go. Alright, ready? I'm definitely to go. ♫ Judging instead by the man inside ♫ Truth can make its way to light ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me Much better. Yeah. Gimme one second. ♫ Judging instead by the man inside ♫ Truth can make its way to light ♫ Stupid and blind ♫ Who could deny ♫ Who would deny ♫ You're one of me Okay, that's aligned and I can totally take care of that little bit of chorusing.